[alex_hitchins]

Certianly from my experience the main reason for using it is that once it becomes to large for a desktop machine it's trivial to migrate to a 'proper' MsSql server.

I also don't find the admin side much of a faff. Provide your users a backup/restore option within your app and ensure you install your own instance.

[douche]

SQL Express has some rather shitty default configuration when you install it, that you usually have to change to actually use it for anything useful.